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Low and lower carb ways of eating


NulloModo

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I don't have either book, but it could just be that some people like cheesecakes sweeter than others. I tend to use around 1 1/2 cups of sweetening agent (maybe it is two cups worth, especially after synergy effects) for around 48 Oz of Cream cheese, two eggs, 1/2 cup of cream, and a stick of butter for a cheesecake.

He don't mix meat and dairy,

He don't eat humble pie,

So sing a miserere

And hang the bastard high!

- Richard Wilbur and John LaTouche from Candide

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Ahr, are you sure that Atkins is using only one type of sweetener? I'm pretty sure he was pro-combining before any else was.

If more than one sweetener was used, then 1/2 C. sweetening equivalent could possibly translate into 1 cup, which wouldn't be that far from 1 1/4.

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This book predates that recommendation. Recipes specify only however many "packets sugar substitute," and the introductory text omits any discussion of which to use or how to combine them.

A more recent Atkins book suggests, in a different recipe, that 2 packets of mixed sweeteners is equivalent to 3 packets of a single kind.

Edited by ahr (log)

"To Serve Man"

-- Favorite Twilight Zone cookbook

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This book predates that recommendation.  Recipes specify only however many "packets sugar substitute," and the introductory text omits any discussion of which to use or how to combine them.

A more recent Atkins book suggests, in a different recipe, that 2 packets of mixed sweeteners is equivalent to 3 packets of a single kind.

Hmmmmmmm... you got me :) As Nullo suggests, it could a different penchant for sweetness. Still, though, that's a huge disparity. Maybe it's a typo?

That 2:3 synergy sounds about right for two sweeteners. When combining 3 sweeteners, I think it it's closer to a 1:2 amplification.

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Marcia, are you sensitive to sugar alcohols (i.e. the sweeteners used in the vast majority of sugar free chocolates)?

I'm not sensitive to them particularly, but in general I don't like them much. However, used judiciously in a blend, I wouldn't have a problem.

For 1 cup sugar:

3/4 C. polydextrose

1/2 C. splenda (or more preferably, the liquid splenda equivalent)

2 T. erythritol

1 T. ace k (sunnett/sweet one)

Erythritol has some crystallization issues that prevent it from being suitable for all applications. For those times, it's either a good brand of stevia or succumbing to a little sugar alcohol use (xylitol, sorbitol, maltitol, etc.)

This sounds great - thanks! It's just something like this I would like to use in that pumpkin pie recipe.

My experience with sweeteners on the whole is that context is everything :-). I love stevia or sweet n low in tea, but hate either of them in coffee. I like splenda or equal in coffee, or for adding a touch of sweetness to dishes. I don't taste splenda in things like sodas made with Torani sugar free syrups, but I really tasted it in that pumpkin pie.

Side note: I use the Torani Sugar Free Vanilla syrup for sweetening many things, from coffee to fruit desserts. It's not just good and sugar free, it's just plain old good.

Marcia.

Don't forget what happened to the man who suddenly got everything he wanted...he lived happily ever after. -- Willy Wonka

eGullet foodblog

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My experience with sweeteners on the whole is that context is everything :-). I love stevia or sweet n low in tea, but hate either of them in coffee. I like splenda or equal in coffee, or for adding a touch of sweetness to dishes. I don't taste splenda in things like sodas made with Torani sugar free syrups, but I really tasted it in that pumpkin pie.

I agree. Splenda is fairly reknowned for being horrible on it's own with chocolate. I'm wondering if pumpkin based baked goods are difficult to sweeten. My biggest problem with sweetening to date was pumpkin bread, which I blamed on the saccharin. The bread had a alcoholic 'heat' to it in my mouth.

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  • 10 months later...

I guess I should never say never :smile:

I started on my nutritional journey as a vegetarian (Atkins? Never! ), but when I learned the value of omega 3's, I listened to Dr. Weil's advice and added cold-water oily fish while clearing my kitchen of trans-fats, and later migrated to the South Beach Diet. With the SBD I put the glycemic index further into practice and worked hard to add even more vegetables to our diet (veggies & eggs replaced cereals for breakfast). All the while, we ate low fat and used only EVOO.

But then, we moved to MN, and good fish was harder to come by, so I added Amish chickens... until the summer came with the farmers market. Along the way, I had discovered Sally Fallon's Nourishing Traditions. At the market, I met a farmer who farmed to my new standards, and soon I was buying organic & free-range chickens & their eggs from him. By the end of the summer, I had tip-toed back to eating red meats from his pastured animals. As I understand it, pastured animals have a small amount of omega 3 and CLA in them, that lot-fed animals do not. So now I am eating more saturated fats (always organic & pastured).

I use philosophies from all of these diets, but only when I can make them work together. No partially-hydrogenated oils; very little polyunsatuated oil, and then only as found in food; and moderate amounts of really fresh EVOO (thank you David Rosengarten! :wub: ). Per Nourishing Traditions, I now also use butter from pastured cows (some of which I make myself), lard, tallow, duck fat - all from pastured animals, and virgin coconut oil. We eat Vital Choice salmon, organic & free-range chicken, turkey, duck, beef, lamb & elk. And of course, lots of colorful vegetables, berries, grapes, and for treats, one (1) Dove Mini, dark chocolate, or one Dove Promise, dark chocolate.

So, am I following Atkins now unknowingly?!!??

Lynnette

The Atkins induction sounds similar to the South Beach phase 1, but Atkins does not have the requirement of sticking with unsaturated fats or lean meats, anything there is fair game, but the principles are the same, control blood sugar, control cravings, control appetite, etc.

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Lynette, welcome to the forum! :)

Although it sounds like you have found a way of eating that works superbly for you (and sounds delicious!), I would say there's a few key differences between what you describe and Atkins.

1. Grapes are very high in sugar. Although they may make it into latter stages of Atkins, they would definitely be approached sparingly, if at all.

2. Sugar (like hydrogenated oil) never makes it onto the 'okay once in a while list.' Atkins is big on the 'no more sugar,' ever, philosophy.

3. A huge part of the Atkins process is the stages one goes through. A strict sugar free fruit free starch free two week induction period is seen by many devotees as being vital for success in the program.

It does sound like you've taken some pretty big steps away from South Beach with your approach to healthy fats and what I'm guessing could be a more liberal approach to fat consumption in general. That's definitely Atkinsesque :) But no clear cut induction, 'lots of grapes' and the occasional sugary treat... that's definitely a different direction. Not bad, mind you, just different.

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  • 9 months later...

Does anyone here still follow a lo-carb lifestyle, even on occasion? It works for me when I've gotten too indulgent :hmmm: and need to cut back a bit.

I'd love some new ideas.........getting tired of cauliflower. (Never thought I'd say that !)

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Does anyone here still follow a lo-carb lifestyle, even on occasion? It works for me when I've gotten too indulgent  :hmmm:  and need to cut back a bit.

I'd love some new ideas.........getting tired of cauliflower. (Never thought I'd say that !)

Yes -- but I call it a 'good-carb' lifestyle --- South Beach.

I have to confess that I've been at a a standstill for about a year, after losing 50 pounds. But it is a problem with portions and not quite enough exercise. But diet-wise, I still stick to the guidelines -- most of the time. When I'm out, I plan ahead that I will sin. When I lost the weight (over a period of a couple of years) I did indulge on occasion. I don't think any diet would appeal to me if it was so strict that I ABSOLUTELY could not cheat once in a while.

And, about cauliflower. I am so use to caulitaters, that I can't even think of mashing potatoes any more. The cauliflower almost tastes like them to me!!

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I don't get tired of eating fauxtatoes, but I sure as heck get tired of making them. Soupy fauxtatoes is a pet peeve of mine, so I go through a couple of extra steps to extract as much water as possible. It's ends up being a lot of work.

There is one thing I never ever get tired of. Taking a red hot frying pan, glugging a load of oil or scooping a mound of fat into it, and then a pile of diced onions. The ability to fry onions in a ton of fat makes me giddy. And if it's beef fat, pork fat or butter... all the better. To be able to do that and lose weight- it's a beautiful thing. For that reason alone, I will never go back to a low fat way of eating.

I never get tired of deep fried chicken strips with a carbalose breading. Never. I have a tendency to eat about 10 in one sitting, so I don't make it very often, though.

I have a few desserts that I never tire of. I make a brownie that's better than any high carb brownie I've ever had/made. My crust needs work, but my pecan pie kicks some serious behind.

If I overdo it, it makes me gain, so I have to eat it in small amounts/infrequently, but I never tire of Dreamfields pasta. I made a sausage lasagna that was amazing. I also always look forward to dreamfields with bacon alfredo. I don't think there's a better sauce on this planet than bacon alfredo. Dreamfields with lc meatballs is wonderful. If I could eat Dreamfields and lose, I'd eat it every day. But I can't, so it's something that I look forward to about once a week.

What I really need is the time to sit down and develop new dishes. I've got a few Indian dishes mulling around in my head that, in theory, are sublime. I've got all the necessary research done for layer cake. Laminated doughs/croissants. I've helped 10s of clients make superb lc ice creams, but until I get an ice cream maker, I'm not able to enjoy the fruits of my labor. My pizza dough is 90% of the way there. Pound cake is calling out to me. Jerky might be nice. As much as I like the food I eat now, I really look forward to the new creations waiting to break free of my imagination. They've been incubating for ages and are ready to hatch, it's just finding the time to get into the kitchen and making them a reality.

I know one thing- I don't ever want to see cottage cheese again for the rest of my life.

And almonds. I eat almond so much when I'm hungry that my conditioning is such that, even if I'm not hungry, eating almonds now makes me hungry.

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jo-mel~

what foods have you relied on? What are your favorite meals that you DON'T tire of?

Kathy

Kathy -- My mainstay meat is usually thin chicken breast fillets or turkey breast slices. Pork or veal or beef once a week and fish at least once. Veg or shellfish once a week.

But it is the chicken that I have most fun with. I really do not like white meat, so I use a Chinese marinade to seal it and keep it moist and tender. (1 Tbsp. egg or Egg Beaters / 1 Tbsp. cornstarch / 1 Tbsp sherry) I mix it all up with the meat and let it sit a few minutes or stick it in the refrig for a few hours. I brown the coated slices in Pam, then add some Sugar Free orange marmalade and balsamic vinegar to the pan with the chicken to make a glaze. SF apricot jam is good too and so is SF cherry jam.

I also like to add some Pammed 'fried' chopped onions with chopped turkey bacon to the chicken.

A slice of FF cheese or FF shredded cheese melted on the chicken is good.

SF orange marmalade with jarred mustard is a good glaze, too.

Coated with 4-C lo-carb crumbs mixed with parmesan cheese is good if you use a lot of Pam to help them brown.

I don't have a problem with watery fauxtaters. I guess because they aren't watery. I use a fresh cauliflower and chop it into pieces and nuke it till real tender. No water added. Then I use a hand held Braun mixer and mash them with a big splotch of FF cream cheese, some dried chives, garic powder.,maybe butter buds, some pepper. For a different flavor I'll add horseradish or a few bacon bits. I've never used frozen cauliflower. I think they would make watery spuds.

My biggest problem tho, is keeping the portions down!

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Thanks, everyone. This is really helpful. Have you tried ricotta gnocci? I was thinking of making some tonight.

And thin zucchini strips for noodles? Luckily I am one of those people who like spaghetti squash (esp underdone and crunchy) but I LOVE pasta.......

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About pasta -- I really don't like the whole wheat pastas, with the exception of orzo. Brown rice pasta is OK. At least the brown rice spaghetti twirls nicely on a fork!

But the pasta brands I now use are 'Barilla Plus' and 'Dreamfields'. Both are light in color and don't look like the whole wheat ones do.

The Barilla (in a yellow box) is 'multi-grain' and professes to have more nutrition. It is tasty -- or I should say, it isn't strong tasting like whole wheat pasta.

Dreamfields says it has only 5 gms. 'digestible carbs' per serving.

I don't eat as much pasta as I use to --- or not in the portions I use to eat, but I am happy with these two brands when I do have pasta.

I think the 'good carb' bandwagon did a good thing as brands are now competing and we consumers are the gainers. (not a good word to use on a diet thread!!)

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I have an on-going love affair with Chinese food. Because of the white rice restriction, it makes it a little difficult for some rice dishes. Converted rice does get some approval, thank-goodness, and I use it as a bed for sauce dishes. I really don't like brown rice with Chinese food.

But-- barley gets high marks with the South Beach Diet, and a dish of 'fried rice' using barley really is good! Lots of scrambled Egg-Beaters, scallions, a very little soy sauce, a touch of oyster sauce, and whatever diced meat you wish. A sprinkle of peas for color.

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I have an on-going love affair with Chinese food. Because of the white rice restriction,  it makes it a little difficult for some rice dishes. Converted rice does get some approval, thank-goodness, and I use it as a bed for sauce dishes. I really don't like brown rice with Chinese food.

But-- barley gets high marks with the South Beach Diet, and a dish of 'fried rice' using barley really is good!  Lots of scrambled Egg-Beaters, scallions, a very little soy sauce, a touch of oyster sauce, and whatever diced meat you wish. A sprinkle of peas for color.

I LOVE barley---that is good news !

I've been dieting for a week now and am 7 lbs down. Now, I realize much of that is water weight but, dang, I feel better and aam sleeping better, too. Something to be said for it.........

Made some mushroom soup two nights ago and last nigt had steak, green beans cooked with onions and bacon (Midwest style), tomatoes and mashed cauliflower with a little of the mushroom soup for gravy. Nothing wrong with THAT meal :rolleyes:

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Made some mushroom soup two nights ago and last nigt had steak, green beans cooked with onions and bacon (Midwest style), tomatoes and mashed cauliflower with a little of the mushroom soup for gravy.

Steak and bacon? Are you doing Atkins?

If you are, Atkins definitely isn't barley friendly. At least not until maintenance.

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For the noodle/pasta lovers, don't forget about shirataki (konjac) noodles. The kind with tofu in them have far better flavor and just a few calories (as opposed to zero in the "plain" kind).

Recipes abound online, especially on the Hungry Girl website and Livin La Vida Lo Carb. However, they ALL recommend that you par-boil the noodles before cooking them or saucing them to remove some of the weird taste. The weird texture does not change, so they can take some getting used to. A bit rubbery is a good way to start, but I wouldn't say they are like "rubber bands", as some do.

I like them quite a bit for adding to soups or making a cold soy-sesame noodle salad. :wub:

Andrea

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This is my first post to this thread, which I just found and read all the pages!

I've lost thirty two pounds since june by following the very simple low carb plan of no white foods, exceptions being cottage cheese, cauliflower.

I don't eat white sugar, flour, potatos, rice. Oddly, the hardest part was kicking my addiction to regular Coke! I was drinking a two liter bottle every day, and wondering why I couldn't lose weight! :blink:

What I wanted to add was that I also eat the "upside down pyramid"

my biggest meal of the day is mid morning breakfast, a medium lunch, and a little snacking around dinner time. I know that sounds hard, but you'd be surprised how quickly I got use to it. Especially since I was never a breakfast person. But by eating this way, I am using the calories I consume instead of going to sleep and letting them settle in my stomach. two different Doctors told me that after thirty, the body stores extra carbs in the navel area of the stomach, and what's called a beer belly is truly a carb belly. I'm living proof of that. I found too, I also had to find food that satisfied me and kept me feeling full for as long as possible.

A good example is tuna salad with lettuce and a few tomato slices stuffed into a low carb pita. That keeps me going for hours. Other than the coke, I've never been much of a sweet tooth person, and if I'm craving fast food french fries, I'll eat them and make allowances in the remainder of the day. I've not suffered or felt weak, tired and hungry the way I have on many other diets I've tried.

I'm five seven and a half, and now wear a 10/12, or a woman's medium.

that's not too shabby for an over forty mom of two kids.

I'd love to read more posts about this way of eating, tips and more advice. Keep em coming! I need to lose another ten pounds or so.

Edit to add, how did I forget the most important part?

My blood pressure went from "ready to stroke" to normal with no medication.

Edited by christine007 (log)

---------------------------------------

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However, they ALL recommend that you par-boil the noodles before cooking them or saucing them to remove some of the weird taste.

I had a chance to talk to a sales rep from House Foods (the manufacturer who makes the tofu shiritaki) and she swore up and down that the weird, seaweedy taste is removed in it's entirety by just a rinse with hot water.

I'm a little hesitant to try this technique, but I have been par-boiling the noodles a lot less then the recommended time with excellent results.

The one thing that really drives me nuts about these noodles, though, is if you eat them quickly and aren't extremely careful about chewing, it's really easy to partially swallow a noodle. It is not a pleasant sensation. For this reason, I like to chop up the noodles a bit before I serve them.

I enjoy them with sesame sauce as well. And although I've done a fair amount of scoffing at people that put tomato sauce on them, over the years I've warmed up to a handful of non-Asian approaches, including cheese sauce.

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  • 11 months later...

Must be the time of the year~here I am again, starting eat low-carb. :hmmm:

I just started this weekend and am feeling a little headachey. Is this normal or am I coming down with something? :huh:

I've roasted cauliflower and made some Ultimate Meatballs, roasted a spaghetti squash and boiled some eggs. Bought lots of broccoli and green beans and some B/S chicken thighs? Some bacon. Some shirataki noodles.

Am I forgetting anything? Oh, and made some of my Mom's fabulous Roquefort Cheese salad dressing. Lots of crunchy lettuces to go with, and fresh tomatoes............. :rolleyes:

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What about homemade stock? I find a bowl of soup made from gelatinous stock, lots of veggies and some diced up protein is my "go to" meal, especially as the weather goes to fall. And really good cheeses- melted over your veggies.

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What about homemade stock? I find a bowl of soup made from gelatinous stock, lots of veggies and some diced up protein is my "go to" meal, especially as the weather goes to fall. And really good cheeses- melted over your veggies.

heidih~

I'm with you ! This weekend I should devote Saturday to making some really good stock, not just the broths that I have in my freezer (not that they wouldn't be a good starting point).

I had spag squash and shirataki noodles last night with a tomato -basil sauce. Yummy but kinda odd with the shirataki. It'll take a little getting used to. Salad with Roquefort dressing. Scrambled eggs and bacon for breakfast.

It is counterintuitive that eating this was can help you lose weight. I have a hard time wrapping my head around it, even tho I know it works.

This morning, no headache and I feel full of energy........ :huh:

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